Self-study
Tea made from camellia leaves is a popular beverage. ████████ ███████ ████ ████ ███████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██████████ ████████ ██ ████ ███████████ ████████ ███ ████ ████████████ ███████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███████ ███████ ███████████ ██ ████ ████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██ █ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████ ███████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that on top of causing withdrawal, regular consumption of camellia tea can lead to a heightened risk of kidney damage. The evidence for this claim is that regular drinkers of camellia tea are more likely than most people to develop kidney damage.
Notable Assumptions
Based on a mere correlation between camellia tea drinking and kidney damage, the author concludes that the former causes the latter, meaning that the author assumes a causal link. In other words, the author assumes that kidney damage doesn't lead people to drink camellia tea, and that there’s no third factor causing both kidney damage and camellia tea drinking to explain the correlation.
9.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
Several other popular █████████ ███████ ███ ████ █████████ ████████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ████
The element of withdrawal isn't tied to the conclusion, which is about kidney damage. It's just an additional claim the author makes; information about addiction isn't relevant to the argument.
b
Addictive chemicals are ████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ █████████ ██████████
The author never claims camellia tea is harmful because of its addictive qualities. The addictive qualities are irrelevant to the correlation between tea and kidney damage.
Illusory inconsistency
Illusory inconsistency
Answer is attractive because it seems to (but doesn't actually) contradict the premises or conclusion.
c
Some people claim ████ ███████ ███████████ ██ ████████ ███ █████ █████████ █████ ███████
Even if this is a benefit of camellia tea, it doesn’t weaken the connection between tea and kidney damage. Other benefits of camellia tea aren't relevant to the author's specific claim.
d
Most people who █████████ █████ ████████ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ███████
Even if most regular drinkers don’t develop kidney damage, we know regular drinkers are more susceptible to kidney damage than the general population. So this isn't helpful.
Illusory inconsistency
Illusory inconsistency
Answer is attractive because it seems to (but doesn't actually) contradict the premises or conclusion.
e
Many people who █████████ ███████ ████████ ███ ████ █████████ ███████ █████ █████████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███████
In other words, there's a third factor involved in the correlation between tea and kidney damage. We don’t know which drink is actually responsible for kidney damage, which undermines the causal conclusion.
Alternate explanation
Alternate explanation
Weaken: Introduce or support an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.